12 comments:

Tom Walker (“Jonathan Pie”) is much wittier and funnier than John Oliver.

Moreover Tom Walker is an economic progressive (like me), whereas John Oliver is a politically correct liberal who I disagree with on most issues.

Incidentally, regarding the royal wedding, British taxpayers did not pay for it. The UK government creates its spending money out of thin air. Average Britons refuse to understand this. That’s why they let the UK government grind them into poverty.

Some Britons blame everything on immigrants. For example, Nigel Farage says that immigrants are the reason for the NHS’s problems. The truth is that even if the UK had no immigrants, and everyone in the UK was white, the UK government would continue to use austerity to grind the white masses into poverty.

Brexit has nothing to do with this. The UK government can create infinite money out of thin air, but the government is starving the National Health Service of funding in order to make medical service so poor that the masses beg for relief, even if it means total privatization.

And make no mistake: privatization is the goal, since a privatized medical industry is one of the most profitable of all industries. People like Nigel Farage assist this privatization by encouraging white Britons to blame everything on immigrants, and not on the actual villain, which is the UK government with its gratuitous austerity. This is why waiting rooms are often crowded, and patients often wait months, even for essential procedures. These factors are intentional and deliberate. They happen because, since the start of this decade, gratuitous austerity has kept annual growth in health spending at around 1.2 percent (adjusted for inflation). This is significantly less than the 4 percent increases that were the historical norm.

The National Health Service was introduced in 1948 by Clement Attlee’s Labour government. The Tories tried to kill it, but failed. Now the Tories are successfully killing it because the Labour Party has nothing to offer but political correctness (e.g. “gay rights”) and because the masses refuse to understand the simple facts about money, and because the masses let people like Nigel Farage steer them into racism.

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Regarding the British masses, one group of fools is the “positive money” crowd, who think that all money is created by banks as loans. [http://positivemoney.org/] Banks do create massive amounts of money as loans, but the UK government also creates money, and not as loans.

The “positive money” clowns think the UK would be better off with “sovereign money.” That is, they want the UK government to be able to create money out of thin air, which the government ALREADY DOES. I’ve tried to explain the facts to them, but they are brain-damaged.

Their counterparts in the USA are Ellen Brown and her disciples. [https://ellenbrown.com/ ]

On 5 April 2018, Trump tweeted that “thousands of people in Britain were marching because the National Health Service was going broke and not working,” and that Democrats pushing for universal health care in the United States were pursuing a similar “failed model.”

What people don't understand about monarchies, whether they hold political power or are just figureheads representing the nation and its "glorious" history, is that through them the public vicariously experiences a level of living that no others can approximate, however wealthy.

This vicarious experience is important enough to enough people for the nation to continue to support it.

In addition, nationalists of other nations with former monarchies will look on to this display with nostalgia and it will increase the push for some sort of symbolic restoration.

Interesting in this regard, after the fall of the communistic government in Bulgaria and its replacement by a liberal democracy, the former king was served as prime minister. See <a href="https://www.britannica.com/b Brittanicahttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Simeon-Saxecoburggotski</a>

I would not be at all surprised to see actually Russia restore the monarchy is a form similar to the UK. The Bolsheviki destroyed much of the trappings of the former State and Church, but Putin has had them restored to their former glory as symbolic of Russian cultural greatness and its roots that extend a thousand years back in history and connect to Byzantium. When Constantinople (now Istanbul) fell to Islam in 1453, Russia became the center of Orthodoxy. Later, Russia defeated the Ottomans that controlled Crimea in 1783 under Catherine the Great.

Americans, especially and also many that consider themselves "modern" may see the preserved monarchies as quaint, if not museum pieces, but for many others they are highly valued for the vicarious experience and they are willing to "pay for" it.

Even in China the CCP maintains the historical landmarks and one can see the former imperial throne. The present rulers know that tradition is important for national cohesiveness.

Paybacks are hell... May should clean house of all the coup enablers in UK intel community for starters... but I dont think she understands this... good thing Trump has a property there which is probably tempering his anger towards the UK...

Speaking of the UK, Reuters says that digital minister Matt Hancock wants to introduce new laws that will outlaw “hate speech” on social media.

When people question gassing hoaxes, or poisoning hoaxes, or the six million™ hoax, this is “hate speech.” Any disapproval of Israeli atrocities is “hate speech.” Any disapproval of imperialistic war is “hate speech.”

If you expose the government’s lies, then Matt Hancock calls you a “troll.”

If any social media platform (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) carries any such “trolls” with their “hate speech,” then Matt Hancock wants to fine that platform an amount equal to 4% of the platform’s global revenue.

Regarding the UK, four days ago Trump claimed that the reason why Big Pharma uses high drug prices to gouge Americans is that “freeloading” nations with Single Payer healthcare use their bargaining power to “force” US drug companies to give them pills and treatments at a reasonable cost.

Therefore Trump wants a trade deal with the UK that will “save Americans money” by letting Big Pharma gouge both Americans and Britons together.

This is like claiming that we can reduce crime in our neighborhood by letting criminals attack our neighborhood plus someone else's neighborhood at the same time.

As always, Trump plans to seduce the peasants into believing his lies by stoking peasant hatred. Trump says, “America will not be cheated any longer, and especially will not be cheated by foreign countries.”

However America will continue to be cheated by Big Pharma. And if Trump succeeds, the UK will also be cheated by Big Pharma.

Trump says, “In some cases, medicine that costs a few dollars in a foreign country costs hundreds of dollars in America for the same pill, with the same ingredients, in the same package, made in the same plant. That is unacceptable. It’s unfair. It’s ridiculous.”

Agreed. The drug companies are THIEVES.

Trump says it is average Britons who are thieves, because Britons get drugs at a reasonable cost. Therefore he calls Britons “freeloaders.”

Trump is the last person anyone would want as President, it just shows how bad Hilary was. I hated her fake-ness, as if she was a caring liberal. I think what really upset her, was all the loss of all the money she thought she could make out of the Presidency. But Trump was just as fake, and now he's making the money instead.

Blair is said to be worth 100 million now. PCR says that the elite have paid him handsomely. Charles Ortel says that after seeing the Clintons make a fortune out of the Clinton Foundation loads of neoliberal politicians have got in on the act as well by starting their own charities.

I see the psychological function of all this, but I think it has some negative aspects.

TOM HICKEY WRITES: “Through monarchies the public vicariously experiences a level of living that no others can approximate, however wealthy.”

Yes. Unfortunately, the masses, by living vicariously, avoid having to acknowledge their own poverty. Worship of rich people and celebrities is an escape from reality. Still, I guess that all of us need escapes.

TOM HICKEY WRITES: “This vicarious experience is important enough to enough people for the nation to continue to support it.”

Yes, and this is why Europe is still full of kings today. Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK all have “royal families.” In fact, in 1900 the only European nations that did not have kings were France, Switzerland and San Marino.

TOM HICKEY WRITES: “I would not be at all surprised to see actually Russia restore the monarchy is a form similar to the UK.”

Yes. When a nation’s rulers want to have a war, and send millions of people to die, the peasants are more gullible and obedient when they fight for “God, king, and country.”

In order to preserve the “king’s honor,” they leap headfirst into meat grinders.

Regarding positive money, one "positive" outcome I can see from that is to get us off the treadmill of growth. Because if there's anything private inflation and private debt need, it's growth to keep the party going.